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UPDATE # 15 - June 21, 1997 PART 1: Burning things in space
BURNING THINGS IN SPACE
Paul Ronney http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/ronney.html April 6, 1997 My shift ended early Sunday morning, but on the other shift Greg Linteris was going to be doing a Combustion Module experiment on Laminar Soot Processes (the other study using the Combustion Module) about 5:00 am. So I slept in my car for a while and came in to watch the burn. It was spectacularly successful, and the Principal Investigator, Prof. Jerry Faeth, was very excited. Greg got another great burn after I went back to my hotel to sleep. By this time, the shortened mission was official, so the Combustion Module team worked frantically to figure out how to get Prof. Faeth's experiment out and my experiment, Structure Of Flame Balls At Low Lewis-number (SOFBALL), in and running in the short time remaining. I came in for my shift around noon, and Janice was working on the Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE). She had a couple of test failures at first, then one great burn after another. Later in the day, Roger started working to get my experiment running, while Janice continued with DCE. Roger had not been scheduled to do many of the combustion experiments, but with the changes in the timeline due to the shortened mission, that's how it worked out. Fortunately all of the Payload Specialists had been trained to do all of the experiments, for contingencies such as this one. Both Janice and Roger were working feverishly, foregoing many of their scheduled break periods to get the science done. Also, they were working in near darkness, having shut off 11 of the 12 lights in Spacelab to save power because of the failing fuel cell. At one point Roger said, "I really don't feel up to exercising today, is there something I can do in the lab?" (He had a scheduled exercise period coming up.) We suspected he was feeling fine, but he was willing to forego even looking out the window, knowing that his trip to space would end soon and he might never have a chance to fly again. When we thanked him for his efforts, he merely said "it is my privilege to be here." Late that evening, I knew Roger would be starting the first SOFBALL test. Needless to say, it was an anxious moment for me knowing that the experiment I had been working toward for 13 years was about to begin. But I was busy talking to Janice and the ground controllers for the Droplet Combustion Experiment, and Roger didn't make a dramatic call at the start of the SOFBALL test, so I missed the beginning. I just happened to glance over at a monitor, and was amazed to find a downlinked video image of three tiny flame balls perfectly motionless in the combustion chamber. I was stunned. The burn lasted all the way until the computer automatically shut it down 500 seconds later. I had picked 500 seconds for the test durations because I didn't think the burns could possibly last longer than that. I was wrong. During that 500 second period, Janice needed to call down some DCE test parameters, (she offered to wait until the SOFBALL burn was done, but I felt I had to give my time to my primary job) so I copied everything down as best as I could, still weak with excitement. Later Roger did another dazzling SOFBALL burn lasting about 5 minutes. I hadn't expected that mixture to burn more than 1 or 2 minutes. At the end of the shift, Roger was still volunteering to go on, but we felt the chances of getting another good test in soon was rather small, so we finally told him to turn the experiment off and go to sleep. We were planning on getting one last SOFBALL test the next morning when Greg Linteris was on duty, but by this time the bad fuel cell had been turned off and there was not enough electrical power to keep the SOFBALL experiment running along with others. I wasn't really disappointed considering the great successes of the night before. I came in around 11:00 am to do an interview with some folks from the Discovery channel who were doing a special on space flight. By the time I came in for my shift on console, most of the crew activities involved deactivating experiments. Rumors started floating around the POCC about a possible reflight. I didn't think about it much, figuring that even if a reflight were to occur, it would take a while for a decision to be made. Still, most of the experiments on the flight worked extremely well before they had to be shut down, so there was a strong case to be made for the reflight. The mission manager called another emergency meeting. A reflight had been scheduled for July 1 of THIS YEAR. To fly in THREE MONTHS?!?!?! No one was expecting anything like that. But you have to give a ton of credit to the Space Shuttle program managers. They took their responsibility to deliver a product (a 16-day mission) to the customer (the Microgravity Science Laboratory) very seriously, and when they didn't deliver, they accepted responsibility seriously and offered what amounts to a heroic effort to right the situation. [Editor's note: Kurt works at the Graphical Research and Analysis Facility Laboratory, or GRAF Lab for short. He mainly deals with vision and elbow room. If a NASA person needs to find out if an astronaut can see an experiment, person, dial, or whatever from a certain place, then Kurt is the man! Also he helps determine which astronauts can be working in the Space Lab without getting in each other's way. More of Kurt's weekly journals are available at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/journals/bush] PICTURES OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
Kurt Bush http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/bush.html May 16, l997 Monday - Began working on making realistic lighting pictures for flight 4a. These realistic pictures will have sunshine, Earthshine, and have both coming from the right locations. So far all I can do is the morning and noon Earth angles. For this flight the International Space Station has an XPOP orbit. What is an XPOP orbit, you say? Glad you asked. An XPOP orbit is where one side of the Space Station always faces the Sun as it orbits around the Earth. From the viewpoint of the station, the Sun stays in the same spot in the sky while the Earth goes around the Station, occasionally blocking the Sun's view (night). This may seem complicated, but you know of one good example. The Moon-- it always has the same side facing the Earth. So it could be said that the Moon has an XPOP orbit in respect to the Earth. Tuesday - Created a semi-deployed model of the International Space Station's Radiator. The radiator on the Station performs the same function as the radiator of a car. Its radiator just happens to work in space. The radiator helps cool the Station down. Since there are huge temperature extremes (super hot +300 degrees) on the sunlit sides compared to the (-200 degrees) side not facing the Sun, the vital instruments need lots of insulation so the inside stays at a nice comfortable temperature. All the insulation means that the equipment does not heat up much in the Sun and does not cool down when in the dark. It's a temperature shield. However, using the equipment heats up the equipment and the astronauts. The heat cannot get out of the insulation and the external heat or cold can not get in. That is why the radiator becomes very important to cool the equipment and keep the Station from boiling over. Wednesday - Completed the pictures using the partially deployed radiator. I also got the Sun and Earth angles for the afternoon part of the orbit. All the people in the lab went to the Co-op presentations of what they were doing for the semester. It was all interesting and we got snacks at the end of the presentation. Thursday - Began running the afternoon pictures of the installation of the truss on F4A. I also put a musical soundtrack to the VCR tape of my bosses' version of the animation. Friday - Began adding text and brief descriptions on the time of day and which camera they are using to the pictures I made. These pictures will help the mission planners know what is to be expected, because nobody wants to be faced with a surprise that far from home. STATUS OF STS-94 PROCESSING
Below and in the future, we'll provide some details about the post flight work being done after STS-83 and the subsequent processing of Columbia as it gets ready to fly again as STS-94. These reports will contain jargon and unfamiliar terms; our intent is not to confuse you, but to provide a glimpse at all the steps involved. Detailed daily reports about Columbia's processing can be found at the NASA Shuttle Status web site at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/status/status.htm Since the last updates-sto message, Columbia's midbody umbilical unit used to load cryogenic reactants aboard the orbiter was connected. The helium signature leak test was completed and loading of storable hypergolic propellants aboard Columbia was begun. Tile installation work on the forward reaction control system is complete, with all 36 tiles bonded to the vehicle. Bond verification checks will begin after the loading of hypergolic propellants is complete. The STS-94 Flight Readiness Review was held. Afterwards, NASA managers announced July 1 as the official launch date for Columbia's reflight of the Microgravity Science Laboratory-1 mission. In Columbia's aft compartment, work to install the fabricated "pyro can" assemblies at the orbiter's external tank attach points was scheduled to conclude on June 21. STS-94 SCHEDULED OPERATIONAL MILESTONES (dates are target only): - Ordnance installation (June 24) - Orbiter aft engine compartment close-outs (June 23) - Launch countdown begins (June 28)
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